The Giants, the NFL and the prestigious New York-Cornell Hospital shamefully shielded Super Bowl hero Plaxico Burress from cops after he shot himself in the leg with an illegal handgun at a nightclub, Mayor Bloomberg and the NYPD fumed yesterday.

“Our children are getting killed with guns in the street. Our police are getting killed,” the furious mayor said in demanding Burress get no special treatment for his alleged crime and coverup.

“I think it would be an outrage if we didn’t prosecute to the fullest extent of the law.”

The receiver, who caught the winning touchdown pass in this year’s Super Bowl, was cuffed and paraded in front of cameras like a common criminal before he was arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court on felony gun charges that carry a mandatory term of 3 1/2 years. He was quickly released by Judge Felicia Mennin on $100,000 bail.

Today, Burress went to Giants stadium. He was told by the team to be there Tuesday because he is on the active roster and injured.

He nearly got away with keeping his bullet wound a secret – thanks to a series of shady assists, first reported in yesterday’s Post, that left Bloomberg calling for heads to roll, including at the hospital, which said last night it suspended one employee.

* Detectives are furious that Giant linebacker Antonio Pierce wouldn’t meet with them after the NFL reneged on a promise it would present him for questioning at the 17th Precinct. He later made his normal paid radio appearance on WFAN.

Police now believe that Burress and Pierce arrived at the Latin Quarter at around 1 a.m. Saturday, and that running back Ahmad Bradshaw – on probation for a 2006 larceny rap – was already there in another part of the facility, sources said last night.

Club security had told detectives Derrick Ward, another running back, was inside, too, which he vehemently denied.

* The state Health Department and NYPD launched investigations into New York-Cornell Hospital, which finally admitted it broke the law by hiding the fact that Burress – under the alias Harris Smith – was treated for a gunshot wound.

The hospital hasn’t yet made the emergency-room doctor available to cops, sources said. Contacted by The Post last night, the doctor, 44, referred all questions to the hospital’s public-affairs department.

The mayor called for criminal charges against the facility, which the NYPD is considering.

* Bloomberg trashed the Giants after it was revealed that cops learned about the shooting only from television reports hours later, despite the team’s apparent knowledge of the events. The mayor added that anything short of the mandatory 3 1/2-year minimum for Burress, if convicted, would be “a sham, a mockery of the law.”

* A member of the Giants’ medical staff was interviewed by detectives after the NFL initially failed to produce two team trainers for questioning.

NYPD officials were livid over the roadblocks being thrown up by the Giants and NFL Security, the league’s investigative arm.

“The police were told they would cooperate, but we see no evidence of it,” NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said.

Detectives even went to Pierce’s Totowa, NJ, home, where a woman who answered the door refused them access.

Late yesterday, an NFL players’-union rep showed up at the precinct house to give Pierce’s side of the story, a source said, although the details were not immediately known. Pierce has not been charged.

In a statement, the Giants said “We are working closely with the police and NFL Security. In the early hours of Saturday morning, as we started to get a sense of what we were dealing with, we did, in fact, notify NFL Security, which then contacted police.”

Pierce told WFAN radio host Mike Francesa, “I don’t got nothing to run from. Obviously, it was a tragic and very accidental situation that happened the other night. None of us are pleased by it.”

Bloomberg began the day by lashing out at how the shooting’s aftermath was handled.

“The police only found out about this because of a story on television. The hospital didn’t call and the Giants didn’t call,” he said. “The Giants should have picked up the phone right away as good corporate citizens. I don’t care if there’s a legal responsibility for them to do it.”

He added, “I think it is also an outrage the hospital didn’t do what they’re legally required to do. It’s a chargeable offense.”

Browne said detectives had gone to the hospital to demand information about the shooting from an administrator, but the unidentified woman tried to hide behind patient privacy laws that don’t apply to gunshot victims. That’s when the commanding officer of the nearby 19th Precinct stormed over to the facility and demanded her cooperation. She said Burress had been treated and left. As for criminal charges against the medical facility, Bloomberg said, “I think that the district attorney should certainly go after the management of this hospital.

“There’s a reason why hospitals are required by law to immediately call the Police Department. They didn’t, and they should make sure that the people who didn’t no longer work there.

“It’s just an outrage.”

A spokeswoman for Manhattan DA Robert Morgenthau said only, “The investigation is continuing.”

The hospital admitted some wrongdoing in a statement.

“Not reporting a gunshot wound is a clear violation of our policies and procedures. Mayor Bloomberg has been in touch with us about this matter,” the statement said.

“We take this very seriously, and are conducting a thorough investigation into why this gunshot wound was not reported to the Police Department in a timely fashion. Appropriate disciplinary action will be taken. We are in full cooperation with the mayor’s office and the Police Department.”

Late last night, hospital spokeswoman Myrna Manners said, “Someone has been suspended.” She would not say who.

Burress – whose status with the team remains in limbo – surrendered to police yesterday at 8:45 a.m. at the 17th Precinct, three blocks from the Lexington Avenue club.

A .40-caliber Glock taken from his mansion a day earlier has been turned over to the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms for a trace.